Stuttgart

November 1941

Using mattresses, blankets, and hand luggage, the Jewish persecutees have set up makeshift beds in the extreme confinement of the Blumenhalle (flower hall). Their winter coats hang from the pillars on the long sides of the hall. Several pieces of luggage have names and transport numbers on them.

Image: Stadtarchiv Stuttgart

Annotations

Stuttgart, November 1941
Blankets and mattresses
Hand luggage
Medical staff

Historical context

De­por­ta­ti­on von Stutt­gart nach Riga am 01.12.1941

On November 27, 1941, municipal and security police officers began to transport Jews from Württemberg and Hohenzollern to Stuttgart on guarded trains and buses. Each person carried a maximum of 50 kilos of hand luggage. Covering up the deportation by naming it “resettlement to the East," the Gestapo housed the people in a temporary assembly camp on the former Reich garden show grounds at Höhenpark Killesberg. There, the persecutees had to hold out for several days in extreme confinement. On the night of December 1, 1941, the Gestapo drove 1,013 people to the “Innere Nordbahnhof” station, where they had to board the special train "Da 33". Two Gestapo officers and twelve municipal police officers escorted the transport to Riga. After arriving on December 4, 1941, the deportees were forced on a one-hour march from the Šķirotava train station to the vacant Jungfernhof estate near Riga and were beaten along the way. Many of the deportees did not survive the winter; most of the others were shot by the SS in the Biķernieki woods on March 26, 1942. Only forty-three people from the transport survived the Shoah.

About the image se­ries

The picture series from Stuttgart includes 24 black-and-white photographs in landscape format. They were probably taken in parallel with a propaganda film about the deportation to Riga commissioned by the Stuttgart municipal authorities.

The series documents various phases in the run-up to deportation at the assembly camp on Killesberg: the inspection of luggage and identity cards in the “Ehrenhalle des Reichsnährstandes” (hall of honor of the Reich farm producers), the delivery of food parcels and the distribution of food in the courtyard, the accommodation of the persecutees in the “Blumenhalle” (flower hall), and the loading of luggage in the inner courtyard.

Photographer

Un­known,

Provenance

Call num­ber at source ar­chi­ve

9200-F-67982

Tit­le at source ar­chi­ve

Jü­di­sche Men­schen mit ih­ren Hab­se­lig­kei­ten in drang­vol­ler Enge in der Blu­men­hal­le auf dem Ge­län­de der ehe­ma­li­gen Reichs­gar­ten­schau

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Heike van der Horst and Dr. Günter Riederer from Stadtarchiv Stuttgart for their support in describing the picture series.

Text and re­se­arch by Kers­tin Hof­mann.

Kooperationsverbund #LastSeen.
Bilder der NS-Deportationen

Dr. Alina Bothe
Projektleiterin

c/o Selma Stern Zentrum für Jüdische Studien Berlin-Brandenburg
Freie Universität Berlin
Habelschwerdter Allee 34A
14195 Berlin
lastseen@zedat.fu-berlin.de